University of Brighton School of Art
Students, lecturers and researchers once at Brighton include sculptor Anthony Gormley, Alexandra Gage, Viscountess Gage, Clive Gardiner, Kate Greenaway Medal winners Emily Gravett, Raymond Briggs and Quentin Blake; artist Mike Chaplin; children's writer-illustrator Lucy Cousins; Magnum photographer Mark Power; fashion designers Barbara Hulanicki and Julien Macdonald.
The longer history of the school of art in Brighton includes artists Conrad Heighton Leigh and Helen Chadwick, and poster designer John Bellany.
[3] On Monday 17 January 1859 Brighton School of Art opened its doors to more than fifty pupils and was situated in a room off the Royal Pavilion Kitchen provided by the Town Council.
The columns flanking the main entrance were in polished red granite, and the façade enriched by a series of terracotta panels and lunettes that had been designed by the Art Master Alexander Fisher, and executed by Messrs Johnson at the nearby Ditchling Pottery Workshop.
[4] Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, the most artistic of Queen Victoria’s children, and an accomplished sculptor in her own right, was present, as was Victorian art educational tsar, Sir Henry Cole.
At Brighton before World War I, the portfolio of courses at the School of Art included typography, silversmithing, jewellery, leatherwork, woodcarving, embroidery and lace making.
Bond was also concerned with the appearance of Brighton, reacting negatively to many aspects of the urban environment, a theme that a number of his British arts and crafts antecedents such as John Ruskin and William Morris had pursued with zeal.
During World War II, the School of Art was able to demonstrate its usefulness to the wider community through involvement with the propaganda campaigns, in which the Women's Crafts Department provided a particular focus, especially in the "Make Do and Mend" ethos following the introduction of clothes rationing in the United Kingdom in 1941.
Considerable local anger had been expressed about the possibility of demolishing a Grade II-listed terrace of Regency houses, against the advice of the Royal Fine Art Commission.
Michael Viney, however, was more positive: "Decisively modern and pseudo anything, the building nonetheless makes gradual easy transition from the Regency bow-fronts adjacent in Grand Parade to the sharper, cleaner, more functional lines of 1958."
It hosted a wide range of performances, such as those associated with the innovative Brighton Contemporary Festival Arts (1977–79) organised by Roger Ely and Neil Butler.
David Vaughan was appointed as course leader for the BA (Hons) Wood, Metal, Ceramics and Plastics degree in 1979, later becoming head of the department of Three Dimensional Design.
Despite some misgivings on the part of a number of practitioners in the more established disciplinary fields in the Faculty, this proved to be a dynamic, challenging and highly productive initiative, with Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie playing key roles in the areas of performance.
Many other networks, national and international, formal and informal have also been set in place The institution's re-designation as the University of Brighton in 1992, with Professor David Watson as Vice-Chancellor, resulted in a number of fresh opportunities.
